Making the American self : Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

What does it mean to be an American, and how have individual Americans consciously endeavoured to create their own identity? "Self-improvement", "self-culture", and "to make something of oneself" were all terms used from Colonial to Victorian times.

This quest has been a powerful cultural imperative for hundreds of years.

This book explores the ideas Americans once had about a proper construction of the self.

Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, and Dorothea Dix, among others, engaged in discussions about the composition of human nature, the motivation of human behaviour, and what can be done about the social problems that these create.

The book reveals how Americans both distrusted individual autonomy and were enthusiastic about it, and looks at the pursuit of identity in all walks of life, while still grounded in conservatism and evangelical Christianity.